Google — which has spent more than €400m (£290m) in Ireland since 2010 — has started work on a new €150m (£108.8m) data centre in Dublin.
The internet giant’s new two-storey facility is being built adjacent to its existing data centre at Profile Park, near Grange Castle in west Dublin, which opened in 2012. First phase construction will be completed later this year and, when fully open, the facility will be one of the most energy efficient data centres in the world.
Google, which currently leases a third data centre outside the capital, has also bought an adjoining 31-acre site, to allow for future expansion.
Underlining his company’s commitment to Ireland, Google’s head of operations in the country, Ronan Harris, told the Irish Independent: “I think the view that we have of Ireland is that it is a wonderful place to base ourselves and do business.
“Every time we’ve wanted to expand and grow, we’ve been able to find the talent and infrastructure that we needed to be able to do that.”
He confirmed the new centre would help power the full range of Google services, including Gmail, Maps and YouTube and generate “several dozen” new jobs.
“The investment in the data centre is our belief that the demand on our services is growing and around that we’ll be able to build a lot more employment and a lot more jobs,” Harris added.
“Today we’ve got over 2,500 full-time employees, a further 2,500 vendors who work with us, and hopefully the expanded capacity of our data centres will result in the expected growth in our services and that will lead to even more employment creation.”
Google has been investing heavily in Ireland since it arrived in the mid-2000s. Between 2010 and 2012, it spent €300m (£217m) on its initial buildings in the Barrow Street area of Dublin; now known as Silicon Docks. And in 2014 it invested another €65m (£47m) to acquire Grand Mill Quay.
Ireland’s naturally cool climate is a draw for data centre operators, because it allows them to save dramatically on cooling costs. Earlier this year both Apple and Facebook announced they would be establishing facilities on this side of the Atlantic to serve their European customers.
